Song Stealer, a new shiny-floor music show from MBC, successfully immersed the audience with the singers’ spectacular performances. The main format of the show is having cover artists steal the songs they have long adored; right before the eyes of the original performers. Both artists perform a single song, showcased in turn, first by the Song Stealer, and then by the original singer.
100 audiences in the studio vote on the version they enjoyed more between the two performances. In case the Song Stealer wins by getting more than 50% of the votes, the cover song artist receives the golden “Song Stealer badge” as well as the chance to release a single album of the cover song online. If the original performer wins, the original singer is deemed to have ‘defended’ the song. They are seen satisfied to have captivated the audience with their own original performance.
The show won the ‘Best Format Idea’ award at the annual event held by MBC Entertainment show producers, and was able to secure 2 special pilot episodes during the Lunar New Year’s Holidays back in February 2024.
The pilot episodes received rave reviews and recorded over 10 million views online. Due to the overwhelming response, the show successfully launched as a 12 episodes regular show to be aired every Sunday night, from May 5th to July 21st 2024.
Creator and Producer of Song Stealer, JANG Harin, focused on the fact that depending on the singer, every song can be interpreted into thousands of different ways.
Jang commented, “Although Song Stealer is seemingly a competition show, the core goal of the show is to lead the audiences to relate to the music itself. They get to enjoy a variety of singers performing each other’s songs in their own creative way; it’s a thrill to listen to ballad songs interpreted into other styles of music such as jazz or even rock. Also, the singers who hesitated to participate in a ‘competition’ at first, were in the end excited that their songs received the chance to be in the spotlight once again. They were also very proud to stand on stage together with talented singers they respected and were a fan of. As the views of the original version instantly soared when the ‘stolen’ cover song was released online, they were pleasantly surprised as well.”
Song Stealer successfully wrapped up its first season on MBC, critically acclaimed as a sensational music show. The dynamics of the song ‘stealing’ competition as well as the singers’ authentic tribute towards music has successfully brought music lovers of all ages together, creating a perfect show for the entire family to watch.
Song Stealer is now set to expand globally, already having been optioned into 5 countries around Europe and Australia.
